How is the Regina caeli rung?
  • Bruce E. Ford
    Posts: 431
    I know how to ring the Angelus; but I was just asked how to ring the Regina caeli, and I don't know. Can someone tell me?
  • Kathy
    Posts: 5,507
    Some monasteries ring the Angelus and say the Regina caeli.
  • Joseph Mansfield
    Posts: 113
    When I last heard the Regina caeli rung (probably in the 60s) it was :
    three strokes/pause for first two lines (Regina...
    three strokes/pause for next two (Resurrexit...
    three strokes/pause for verse/response (Gaude...
    nine double strokes for the collect (Deus, qui...
    In other words, just like the Angelus but with shorter pauses because there are no Aves.
  • Bruce E. Ford
    Posts: 431
    Thank you.

    I received similar, but not identical instructions when I called Holy Cross Monastery in West Park, New York. They ring the bell once as each of the four opening lines is recited and then ring it nine times when the versicle, response, and concluding collect are being recited.

    I suspect that practice with respect to Regina caeli is less standardized than with respect to the Angelus.
  • Joseph Mansfield
    Posts: 113
    Mr Ford -- what a coincidence! The Angelus and Regina coeli that I heard in the 60s were at St Michael's Priory, a daughter house of the OHC monastery in West Park. The priory was on the campus of St Andrew' s School in St Andrews, TN, a boarding school for boys operated by the Order.

    I also recall these being rung in the 60s at St James's parish in Long Branch, and I believe they were the same as at St Andrews.

    The Angelus is still rung today at Sts Peter and Paul, Chattanooga, with three strokes on each v/r and an indeterminate number on the collect. The strokes on the v/rs are generated by a sledge striking the lip of the bell from underneath. Then the motor is started and the bell set swinging for the collect, so the number of strokes is not precisely governed. I don't know if they have a different ring for the Regina coeli.

    The common thread connecting the variant ways seems to be to mark three pairs of lines and then the collect. I would suspect the strokes of the bell might be analogous to swings of incense -- single, double, or triple. In any case, the common factor distinguishing between Angelus and Regina coeli would be the pauses for the Ave in the Angelus, which are not needed in the Regina coeli.

    The West Park practice, as you describe it, is different from any of these other practices I have heard, and does not seem to have quite the same logic behind it. One would like to hear from other readers how these devotions are rung in other places.
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